From The Desk of Taco: Harambe the Gorilla

  Hi there. It's Taco again. It's come to my attention that there are two types of people in the world today. People who get their news from SportsCenter and people who get theirs from Facebook. If this holds true, you know that there are two trending topics today: Mookie Betts and Harambe the Gorilla. As much as it pains me to not write about the MLB record smashing, Nashville native himself, Mookie Betts, this post needs to focus on the latter subject.

Photo Courtesy of Heavy.com

  This stud is Harambe. He is a former resident of the illustrious Cincinnati Zoo. Unfortunately, less than a week ago, the world lost a fine western lowland gorilla in him. This story has stirred quite the controversy on social media and will most likely not end until even more is done. We all get it! This is a terrible thing that has happened but please take a step back and think before you share a very one-sided Facebook post on this subject. The internet is a powerful tool in today's world (unfortunately). Opinion can be exaggerated and become what people believe is reality. With all this being said, I have to ask the question, "WHO CARES??"  (bear with me here)







THE STORY:
  On Saturday at the Cincinnati Zoo, a small child was discovered by onlookers inside the gorilla habitat. His mother is caught on video yelling "Don't worry, Mommy's here!" as he is dragged through the water in the enclosure. Chaos ensues and the 17 year old male gorilla begins to display dominance and fear. Law enforcement is called and quickly after the gorilla is shot.

                                                                   THE ISSUE
  This is the shortened, slightly researched, tale of the death of Harambe the gorilla. At this point though, I'm sure you already knew this much. Now let's get to the good stuff. Let's find out just why everyone's panties are in a bunch over this. On the surface, the argument is whether or not Harambe needed to be killed or not, but the Facebook fueled headlines make it seem so much more ignorant. The world has blown this up to the point where if someone under a rock surfaced and logged onto Facebook for the first time, they might think that we are arguing over whether or not we choose Harambe or the boy himself! Sure that seems like a stretch, but honestly that's what we make it out to be. Step back and remember that a child lived! I'm aware that he only sustained minor injuries during this incident but this is a 450lb body-building animal he was up against. He could have easily lost his life if this gorilla decided he wanted him to. Now I know how smart this creatures are and from watching the videos I personally can't imagine him hurting the boy intentionally but in the end, he's an animal.

  You may ask me. "Jesse (that's my real name), don't you feel death is an extreme punishment for an endangered animal who has done nothing wrong?" My answer, "Yes". Under any circumstance like this one when any other course of action could be taken, I strongly agree that we should spare the animal's life. How long do you want the responders to wait though? 5 minutes? 10? Do you know what could happen in 10 minutes in that enclosure? The child's life is the most important thing in that cage at that point. Extreme measures to ensure that that kid keeps his life is priority number one by far. Now you ask, "Well if the child's life is soOoOoOo important, where was his mother when you slipped into the gorilla enclosure, hmm??" You don't think parents lose their kids every now and then? My parents lost each one of their four sons at least once! For real! People have brought us home before they even noticed once! Give the mother a break, she was at the Cincinnati Zoo. They spend millions making sure we have something exciting to look at. A child's curiosity OFTEN outweighs a parent's ability to keep their eye on them. Human error is not worth the digital crucifixion I have seen online of this mother.

  Now let's assume we had another option other than killing the gorilla. A tranquilizer wouldn't have taken effect in time for the shock of being shot with a tranquilizer to cause him to respond the way a animal might respond. Perhaps a zookeeper could have went in the retrieve the boy slowly and cautiously but what if Harambe responded by trying to protect the boy and harming the handler? There are so many "what if" scenarios but all of them lead back to the fact that we could not have predicted the gorillas next move. The child had to be saved no matter what.

  It's important that we back up and realize what this is all about. An endangered, beautiful animal had to die in order to make sure that a young boy didn't lose his life. It is very sad, but it had to happen.. Now, let's focus on my previous statement. "WHO CARES?" Do you? Or did you only want that the Likes? Did you know Harambe's name before he died? I mean you all are acting like you lost a family member, but did you care before? Do you care enough to help protect gorillas in the future? Or are you going to be ignorant and boycott the zoo? (FYI boycotting a zoo means they get less money. Meaning the animals are not receiving the level of care that you might want) Do you care that you have publicly shamed a mother that just watched her son be dragged around by a gorilla? I mean really think about this before you share a post for once. The zoo could be sued just because a child lived?? Really?? Do you think the other animals in the Cincinnati Zoo will benefit from the zoo losing millions in court cases? Do you even care?

  Ok, I'm done with my mini rant. I know it was sad. I know we all wish that something could have been done that resulted in no loss of life. There is good news however. We can all start to make things better. Support your local zoo. Support research that might aid in making these animals held in captivity more comfortable. Support sanctuaries. There are people out there trying to make the lives of these animals more comfortable and trying to help these endangered species rebuild their numbers. Instead of making it hard on these people, let's try making it a little bit easier.

Very Respectfully,
Taco

Here are some links that you can use to maybe plan a trip to a zoo to show your support for the great creatures of the earth.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl
https://cincinnatizoo.thankyou4caring.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=298
http://www.zooknoxville.org/donate/overview/  (For the local readers)